Reid delivers ‘meat-and-potatoes’ Christmas

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This article was published 08/12/2009 (6127 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Anticipation. That’s the word that kept coming back to Johnny Reid when the Scottish-Canadian country star decided he was going to record a Christmas album.

Before tackling the project, Reid, 36, gave thought to exactly what he wanted to convey on a holiday disc, and soon realized it was the excitement of the yuletide season that appealed to him.

"I sat down and thought, ‘What is it about Christmas that I love?’ and the answer I came up with was that I love the anticipation of Christmas," Reid says.

"You know, that last week of November, bringing the boxes down from the attic and getting the lights up… the big countdown… There’s a magical quality that I felt when I was a kid, and now I get to see it in my own children."

That’s the feeling Reid sought to capture when he wrote and recorded Waiting for Christmas To Come, one of two original songs on his holiday disc, Christmas.

For the album’s other nine tracks, Reid recorded some of his favourite Christmas songs, and those suggested by his three sons.

"My oldest wanted Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and my next one, his favourite is Little Drummer Boy," says Reid. "My youngest, he’s three, he just wanted something with a reindeer, so I picked Chuck Berry’s Run Run Rudolph."

The biggest challenge in recording Christmas, says Reid, was in trying to write new songs that could hold their own next to those classics.

"It wouldn’t be as intimidating if I was going to record (all) original songs," Reid says. "But there’s nine classic Christmas songs on this record that everybody knows. To try and make the originals fit without screaming: ‘Hey, this is (new),’ that was the challenge."

It’s a challenge that Reid lived up to. Christmas went gold in Canada (with sales of 50,000) within one day of its Nov. 10 release and, currently, the disc sits atop the Canadian country-music charts, having edged out the superstar likes of Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw and Carrie Underwood.

Reid believes Christmas has been a success because people are responding to his honest, hard-working approach.

"To me, it was really important to cut a blue-collar, working-class Christmas record," he says, "to make it sound like a bunch of boys having a party in the kitchen. I didn’t want anything too elaborate; just a really meat-and-potatoes Christmas album that the whole family can enjoy with a bit of rock SSRqn’ roll and soul, blues, R&B, a wee bit of everything."

Reid used himself as the litmus test for the album’s desired blue-collar compatibility.

"I come from working people, coal miners and general labourers," says Reid, who was born in the town of Lanark, in the central belt of Scotland. "I grew up the son of a mechanic."

When Reid was 14, his parents "sold everything they had," he says, to move the family to Canada in search of better opportunities.

The family settled in Brampton, Ont., where Reid began to pursue both athletics and music. While attending Bishop’s University in Sherbrooke, Que., where he played for the varsity football team, he also caught the attention of DreamWorks Records’ Nashville division with a tape of his songs. That led to a songwriting publishing deal and Reid’s music career was off and running.

While Reid grew up listening to his father’s Charley Pride, Willie Nelson and Kenny Rogers records, Reid was also profoundly influenced by his mother’s love of soul artists, such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke.

Undoubtedly, his soulful delivery has helped give Reid a distinctive stamp within the Canadian country scene, his voice reminiscent of Rod Stewart’s (also a lifelong R&B devotee).

But Reid is grateful he’s been so embraced by Canadian country fans.

"I fell in love with the morality of country music — and the storytelling and song craftsmanship… I believe that’s what connects me with country. I know exactly who I am and I keep my feet on the ground… I feel that’s what people identify with."

Reid brought that same approach to his Christmas album.

"When I wake up Christmas morning, what kind of Christmas record would I enjoy?" Reid asked himself, before setting out to record the album he imagined. "It just so happens that there was a lot of people like myself, who have enjoyed that kind of record too."

— Canwest News Service

 

See a review of Reid’s Christmas in the holiday CD roundup in the Dec. 17 edition of The Tab.

 

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